13 Facts About Eduard Bloch

Dr Eduard Bloch was an Austrian doctor practicing in Linz, who, for many years until 1907, was the family doctor of Adolf Hitler and his family.

When Hitler's mother, Klara, was dying of breast cancer, Bloch billed the family at a reduced cost and sometimes refused to bill them outright.

An Austrian Jew, Eduard Bloch was awarded special protection by Hitler who personally intervened to ensure his safety following the German annexation of Austria in 1938.

Eduard Bloch studied medicine in Prague at Charles University and then served as a medical officer in the Austrian army.

Eduard Bloch was stationed in Linz from 1899 until his discharge in 1901, at which point he opened a private practice there.

Eduard Bloch's practice was in the baroque house at 12 Landstrasse, where he lived with his family: his wife, Emilie and their daughter Trude, born in 1903.

The first member of the Hitler family Eduard Bloch saw was Adolf.

Eduard Bloch stated that Hitler did not have any illness whatsoever, let alone a lung disease.

The 66-year-old Eduard Bloch then wrote a letter to Hitler asking for help and was as a consequence put under special protection by the Gestapo.

Eduard Bloch was the only Jew in Linz with this status.

Eduard Bloch stayed in his house with his wife undisturbed until the formalities for his emigration from the Third Reich and immigration to the United States were completed.

In 1940, Eduard Bloch immigrated to the US and settled in the Bronx, 2755 Creston Avenue, New York City but was no longer able to practice medicine because his medical degree from Austria-Hungary was not recognised.

Eduard Bloch died of stomach cancer in 1945 at age 73, barely a month after Hitler's death.